Cass helped Salos clean up in the little tub Telis had brought for him. He put up with the scrubbing admirably, though he glowered through the entire ordeal. He was quick to hop out and shake himself dry when Cass was done. Acceptably dry, he sat himself at the doorway, his head pressed to the crack, watching the hallway.
Salos taken care of, Cass dried off too and got dressed.
Her clothes were clean, just as Telis had promised they’d be. Somehow, even her socks had been s...
2024-06-22 22:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Cass jerked awake, disoriented and alone. Water splashed as she flailed.
She stood at the bottom of a deep crevasse. Water poured silently down the sides from above, pooling up to her knees, cold but clean. Above, a crack of white light ran along a ceiling of stars.
“Where am I?” Her voice floated through the dark, warping and distorting unnaturally lower as it moved away from her.
Something about this place was familiar, but she couldn’t put her fing...
2024-06-21 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Telis led Cass through the house to one of the back rooms. It was tiled from floor to ceiling. A basin was built into one wall, already filled with gently steaming water. Beside it hung an orb of blue glass.
“Are you familiar with shower orbs?” Telis asked.
Cass shook her head.
“Simply tap the orb there, and water will fall. Adjust the temperature and pressure by tapping the sides.” Telis demonstrated, and a stream of water gushed from the object.
T...
2024-06-20 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
Cass followed Telis and Alyx through town and into a small townhouse.
Alyx flopped into the armchair in the main room with an exhausted sigh of relief. Marco took his place behind and to the left of Alyx’s chair, his hand resting impassively on his sword.
Cass stood awkwardly by the door. “Weren’t we leaving town?”
Alyx waved off the question. “Soon. Nothing is ever easy. Sit down. We need to talk.”
Cass frowned but settled int...
2024-06-19 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
As the sky brightened with the amber glow of dawn, a landmass appeared ahead of the ship. The stars faded, yet the sun was nowhere in sight. Off the right side of the boat, the crescent moon hung low in the skies. Above, the silver moon faded into the rosy sky.
The land loomed ahead, its rocky cliff sides falling away into the emptiness of the open sky. A basin of water hung from one side, supported by nothing but the magic of aether and the laws of this strange world. In the distance, ...
2024-06-18 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello! We are back with Stormborn Sorceress Book 2: Unhallowed Catacombs!
To celebrate the start of book 2, and to get ahead of Royal Road again, look forward to a chapter every day for the first six chapters!
Thank you once again for reading and please enjoy Cass's new adventure.
2024-06-17 22:05:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
Cass stared at the starry sky above her as the dark clouds parted around the boat. A warm certainty settled over her. For the first time since her arrival, she felt like maybe she had a handle on her circumstances. Salos and Alyx would guide her. Between the two of them, she wasn’t alone.
The wind danced through her braid, pulling at her loose clothes. The night air was chilly, but she hadn’t felt warmer since she arrived.
She looked out over the bow of the boat, h...
2024-06-17 22:00:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
The boat was waiting on the far side, just as they’d said. It was both bigger and smaller than she’d expected. She had expected a sweeping passenger liner, tall metal sides and sleek angles, with plenty of space to walk the deck and perhaps additional spaces below. But it also wasn’t a little medieval sloop with barely enough room to sit side by side.
It was closer to the sloop than the passenger liner though. Made of some kind of wood with two sails. Enormous oars hun...
2024-06-08 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Cass woke up with the worst headache of her life. She pinched the bridge of her nose and blinked up at the ceiling. It was all grey stone cut into regular bricks.
What had happened?
An idle thought ran through her mind. A single word: Focus.
It held a punch, but Cass brushed it aside. She didn’t need it now. The urgency of it was gone.
“She’s up!” Salos shouted.
Cass groaned and sat up to see Salos and Alyx sitting...
2024-06-05 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello!
I'm excited to announce that we are nearing the end of book one of Stormborn Sorceress! The last two chapters will be posted at our normal schedule, the last chapter going up this Saturday (June 8th).
It's been an incredible journey, and I couldn't have done it without your unwavering support and enthusiasm. Thank you so much for joining me and Cass.
To ensure that Book Two starts off with a bang, I will be taking a one-week hiatus after the last ...
2024-06-03 22:05:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
Cass stared. Levina couldn’t actually be dead, could she? Hadn’t she done the shadow dissolve thing? Had she really run out of uses? Why hadn’t she retreated before that?
She couldn’t actually be dead.
But, that had been the goal, hadn’t it?
Kill the woman trying to kill her?
It was self-defense.
Not even self-defense, this wasn’t her fault at all. No one had forced Levina to fight the boar. Levina had chosen to stay and fight ...
2024-06-03 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Cass Sprinted with everything that she had. The boar charged behind her.
Her heart pounded in her chest.
All of its considerable Strength propelled it forward faster than a truck. Its head thrashed in wild madness, its tusks glinting with an unnatural light. There was a skill on those. Cass had played enough games to recognize a boss’s attack and to know it would be game over if she was hit.
The boar was faster than her. Faster than the assassin. Even wit...
2024-06-01 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
The boar was even bigger up close. It was a hulking thing, its shoulder two or three heads taller than Cass. Its body was covered in steel grey bristles. They had a metallic sheen, that promised they were tougher than hair had any right to be. Its tusks were longer than Cass’s forearms and wider than her calves.
It rooted around in the dirt between the shear cliffs to either side, its snout throwing up a cloud of dirt and dust.
Thunderback Boar (Lo...
2024-05-29 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Suddenly, Cass couldn’t sense the assassin’s breathing behind her. She was simply gone to her Atmospheric Sense. If escape had been all she cared about, Cass would have just kept running.
But the goal wasn’t escape. She needed Levina behind her.
Cass glanced over her shoulder, slowing as she searched for the assassin. But her eyes only confirmed what Atmospheric Sense had already told her, the assassin was gone.
But why give up here? Why now? After going th...
2024-05-27 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
The time for planning ended as the assassin hissed in surprise.
Cass turned to see Salos phasing out of existence and settling back in his necklace.
A deep gash spurted blood from the back of the assassin’s ankle, her boot heel eviscerated by a set of long claws.
Alyx pressed the advantage, her sword snaking through the woman’s faltering guard to score a laceration across the chest. Her armor took the damage and Alyx’s sword came away with only the ba...
2024-05-25 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
They arrived at the pyramid without any trouble, despite Trap Detection screaming in Cass’s head. She was tempted to dismiss it, but that wouldn’t actually make her any less anxious about it. At least this way, there was a chance she’d discover the irregularity before whatever booby trap they’d boobied into trapped them.
The pyramid was even more grand up close. It was made up of a series of rectangular levels, like the pyramids of South America on Earth. The edges were all well...
2024-05-22 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
The three descended the path on the far side of the ridge. This side was no less steep than the way up had been. Cass leaned heavily on her staff, stabilizing every slipping, sliding step as the gravelly path shifted under her. Pebbles rolled down the track and sheer cliff sides to the valley far below, each and every one threatening to take her or the cliff side with them.
The day before her kidnapping, she and her siblings had done a much shorter hike over much less steep ground...
2024-05-20 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
They found the epherwing’s nest a little after midday. Cass wasn’t sure when she’d realized she could sense the position of the sun through Atmospheric Sense, but she wasn’t complaining.
The nest—a narrow, oblong bowl worn into the stone by time and weather—was tucked into a crevasse in the ridge. It had been padded with the soft, black down of the epherwing. The feathers had a translucent sheen to them in the daylight, almost like light was refracted through or around...
2024-05-18 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
It was the next morning that Cass finally opened the notifications from the previous night’s fight. She could barely believe what she saw.
Herald of the Pass has been slain.
[You have defeated the Herald of the Pass in Mortal Combat. For your part in its defeat, you have been granted a share of its treasure. Find and collect treasure to claim.]
Beginner Sub-quest: Defeat the Lords’ Heralds Checkpoint (3/3) Completed
2024-05-15 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Everything hurt.
Pain radiated from her chest. Blood pooled in the wound even with the bundle of fleece she’d torn from her shirt sleeve and shoved into the wound. Breathing was a sputtering, drowning hell.
They had made camp then and there on the ridge where Cass had rematerialized after her fall. Cass hadn’t been strong enough to move herself another step and Alyx, although uninjured, was just as exhausted from the skills she’d used in the rescue.
L...
2024-05-13 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Salos whipped around at the sound of Cass’s scream. His heart pounded in his ears. He could see her thanks to his Dark Vision. Her wide eyes were filled with shock. Why were they shocked? What had been her plan?
How did he fix this?
If he were still level 74–still a peerless Nyxdra assassin–he’d tear that overgrown bird down to stone with a casual cast of Pull of the Depths. It’d hit the ground so hard its world would spin until its life was cut short by a qu...
2024-05-11 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
They reached the crest of the ridge as the sun was setting behind them barely visible above the mountain line through the thick cloud cover and Cass was given a panoramic view of the Valley. It ran like a long twisting gash from east to west, high mountainsides stretching up like a crown around the impossibly tall Lightningwood trees. The ridge might have been called Skyline Ascent but the mountains to either side stretched even higher.
Still, it gave Cass her first look at the la...
2024-05-08 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
They hiked for two days, stopping only to sleep. Alyx did not loiter to let Cass forage interesting plants, pushing them relentlessly forward. She barely spoke to Cass either, caught up in her own thoughts. Instead, Cass spent most of that chatting with Salos telepathically as he darted from tree branch to tree branch in his cat form. He moved naturally as if he’d always had four legs. Cass didn’t know if that was a part of the skill or if he had spent time in the past as a cat too. ...
2024-05-06 22:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
The next day was another long day of hiking, interrupted occasionally by attacks by monsters. Alyx dealt with all of them quickly and efficiently with her new sword before Cass or Salos could offer much assistance, the ability of the magic blade easily disabling the lower-leveled enemies.
Salos did get a level from the combat.
“Probably because this item,” he batted at the bell on his collar, “provides an area buff to teammates, I’m getting credit for helping despite...
2024-05-04 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
They continued on their way without further fanfare. It was a quiet hike. Cass spent most of the walk chewing on the pain-killing root she found and scooping up other interesting plants with Foraging. She found a handful of herbs that were supposedly good for blood loss and others for accelerated healing. All of them went directly into her Bag.
That evening, Cass set camp again. Alyx gathered firewood and Cass lit it with Elemental Manipulation. She found more reeds along a river ...
2024-05-01 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Her new Bag adjusted over her shoulder, it was time to regroup with Alyx and Salos.
Cass struggled to stand, her wounds complaining loudly with the effort. She fell back to the ground with a whimper. Her abdomen was still badly injured from the lion’s claws and every movement sent new spikes of pain rippling through her core. It took a few tries, her legs shaking under her as she used her staff to leverage herself up.
She leaned heavily on the staff and kicked out he...
2024-04-29 22:00:17 +0000 UTC
View Post
Defeated Herald of the Forest. Touch Orb of Resonance to Manifest Treasure.
Only when she saw the system notification did she breathe a sigh of relief. She’d done it. She’d escaped.
She slumped to her knees, the tension leaving her body as the rush of energy from the level up kept her conscious. Exhaustion and elation mixed overwhelming her senses.
The notifications kept coming.
Atmospheric Sense has increased to leve...
2024-04-27 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Cass glanced up. The lion was looking her directly in the eyes.
“Cass, run!” Salos and Alyx yelled simultaneously.
The lion inhaled. The lightning gathered with the growing wind. The air buzzed. Her hair stood on end.
Cass Wind Stepped, dissolving into incorporeal nothingness, yanked along with the growing cyclone.
Lightning rained around her, cutting sharp down drafts through the rioting air. Cass wove between the bolts, a flickering existence am...
2024-04-24 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
The lion was enormous, twice the size Cass had imagined them to be. Its fur was pitch black. Electricity sparked off its fur and streaked down its flanks in brilliant flashes of blue. The air around it smelled of burning metal and buzzed with energy.
The Herald’s eyes through the trees consumed her vision. She couldn’t look away.
Her hands tightened on her staff. The lion was level 26? How is anyone supposed to kill that?
You are not, Salos ...
2024-04-22 22:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alyx woke unreasonably fresh and rested for having slept on the ground without a bedroll or even a travel cloak. Just another oddity she was going to chalk up to the strange woman sitting with a cat in her lap beside the fire.
It must be some sort of skill. A passive around rest? Maybe camping? Or fire. That was the only explanation for why this woman was obsessed with lighting campfires wherever they went.
Alyx blinked, staring at Cass and the cat for another minute. <...
2024-04-20 22:00:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
